You spend an hour choosing fabric and three seconds grabbing a reel of thread. Yet the thread is the only thing holding your work together.
Choose the right one and your seams lie flat, press well and last as long as the garment. The good news is that the choice is simple once you know what each thread is good at.
The short answer
Reach for polyester when
The fabric stretches, the seam takes strain, or you are not sure. It is the safe choice for most sewing.
Reach for cotton when
You are sewing woven cotton or linen, quilting, or pressing seams with a hot iron.
The two threads
The everyday all-rounder
DMC Polyester Sewing Thread
KES 300 a reel
Strong for its thickness, with a little give, so seams flex with the fabric instead of snapping. It is the right partner for school uniforms, jersey, viscose, chiffon, bag straps and curtain hems, and it sits well in cotton too.
See polyester threads
For natural fabrics
DMC Cotton Sewing Thread
KES 220 a reel
Cotton thread has no stretch, so it shrinks and presses the same way as shirting, kitenge and quilting cotton. It takes a hot iron without melting or glazing, which lets you press seams open firmly.
See cotton threadsWhich thread for which job
| You are sewing | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| T-shirts, jersey, knits | Polyester | It gives with the fabric |
| School uniforms and work shirts | Polyester | As strong as poly-cotton cloth |
| Viscose, chiffon, slippery fabrics | Polyester | It follows the drape |
| Bags, straps, curtains | Polyester | It handles strain |
| Kitenge, shirting, cotton dresses | Cotton | It presses and shrinks like the cloth |
| Quilts | Cotton | It will not cut into cotton fabric over time |
| Linen | Cotton | It takes the high heat linen needs |
Matching colour
If you cannot find an exact match, choose a shade slightly darker than your fabric, because a lighter thread shows. For a busy print, a mid grey blends into more colours than black or white.
Three reels every sewing box needs
Black, white and ecru in polyester. They end up on almost everything.
A mid grey, for mending fabrics you cannot match.
The exact colour of whatever you are making this week.
Bring a scrap, leave with a match
Colours on a screen are never quite right. Bring a piece of your fabric to our shop on the 1st floor of Sarit Centre and we will match the thread to it.
Shop sewing threadsOr call us on +254 798 316860
In Stitches is the authorised DMC distributor in Kenya.
Prices correct at the time of writing.
